Mall Manager Responsible for Replacing Faulty Ladder

Facts: A sporting goods store tenant at a shopping mall hired a contractor to hang its sign and provided a ladder for him to use while working. The contractor claimed that he had warned the tenant and mall manager that the feet on the ladder were worn out, but was told to “just continue working with it.” The contractor fell off the ladder while hanging the sign, suffering severe injuries.

The contractor sued the mall owner, tenant, and manager, claiming that he fell because the tenant and manager failed to provide him with a secure ladder that he could use while working at an elevated height. The contractor asked the court for a judgment in his favor without a trial. The mall owner, tenant, and manager asked the court to dismiss the contractor's lawsuit.

Decision: The court denied the mall owner's, tenant's, and manager's request to dismiss the lawsuit.

Reasoning: The court noted that the state's labor law required owners and their agents, such as the mall owner and manager, to provide workers—including contractors—with appropriate safety devices to protect against specific gravity-related accidents, such as “falling from a height.” The duty to provide scaffolding, ladders, and similar safety devices was nondelegable—that is, the duty could not be assigned to another person, the court pointed out. The court explained that the duty was nondelegable because the purpose of the law is to protect workers by placing the ultimate responsibility to provide adequate safety equipment on the owners and owners' agents of the properties where the work is being done.

To prove that the mall owner, tenant, and manager had violated the law, the contractor had to establish that: (1) they were aware that the ladder was faulty; and (2) their failure to replace it with a safe ladder was the direct cause of his injuries. Here, the contractor showed that the ladder's feet were worn out; the tenant and manager were aware that the ladder was faulty but did not take any measures to stop him from working or to replace the ladder; the ladder slipped while he was in the process of installing the sign; and, as a result of the slip, he fell off the ladder, suffering serious injuries.

• Shim v. Vornado Realty Trust, et al., June 2010